Bibi, Livni Join Calls for National Service

Likud head Bibi Netanyahu and Kadima head Tzipi Livni both called yesterday for all Israeli citizens to perform some sort of national service. In separate interviews, the two party heads said service should be mandatory, a position promoted for some time by Yisrael Beiteinu. Many Israelis do not perform military or other service. The lowest levels of participation in the army or non-military service are in the chareidi and Arab sectors, and calls for mandatory service are generally aimed at those two populations.

Livni said national service would “benefit each citizen’s relations with the country.” While supporting the idea of mandatory service, Livni attacked Yisrael Beiteinu as “a party whose entire slate is based on hate.”

Netanyahu, who says he will invite Yisrael Beiteinu into his coalition if elected, took a more diplomatic approach. Lieberman’s plan to mandate service and loyalty to the state is “legitimate,” he said, but impossible to enforce.

“It is legitimate to demand that the citizens of a state should be loyal to it,” Netanyahu argued in an interview with Channel 2 television.